We’d be safe if Lyle Taylor was still here, but forget him – the players we do have should be scoring these chances – Charlton boss Lee Bowyer
BY LOUIS MENDEZ
Charlton boss Lee Bowyer says he doesn’t want to talk about the absence of striker Lyle Taylor any more, but admits his side would almost certainly be safe already if the wantaway striker had played in the final nine games of the season.
Out of contract at the end of the campaign, Taylor decided to withdraw from the squad following the return from lockdown in order to not risk a big-money move elsewhere next season.
Goals have been hard to come by for the Addicks, who have scored just four in seven games since the restart.
“Coming back from this lockdown, the amount of pressure and chances we’ve created on other teams, we should be well out of sight,” said Bowyer after his side suffered their latest setback as Birmingham snaffled a late point in the 1-1 draw at St Andrews on Wednesday evening.
“There’s no way we should be competing to stay in this league. It should be done, we should be safe. We’ve created enough chances to win flipping two games again tonight.
“Unfortunately, if you don’t take your chances, you don’t win games. If you don’t win games, you don’t stay in this division. It’s plain and simple.
“I don’t want to talk about [Lyle]. Lyle is not here. There’s no point dwelling on that. If Lyle was here, we would have been safe, 100 percent. Lyle don’t miss those chances that we’re creating. But he ain’t here, so there’s no point talking about Lyle.
“At the end of the day, the players we do have should be taking them chances,” added the Addicks boss after he saw Macauley Bonne and Aiden McGeady both coming close to doubling the lead opened up by Bonne’s 58th-minute strike at St Andrews – the former Leyton Orient man’s 10th Championship goal during his maiden season in the second-tier.
“They’re not hard chances. You see them, you see where they are getting the chances from. They’re not hard to score from there. Whether Lyle is in the side or not, it makes no difference. Our players are good enough to take those chances to win this game.
“I just feel like I’m saying the same things as at the weekend, we should have won this game comfortably. Hit the post. Missing clear-cut chances from four yards out again, in the middle of the goal. You ain’t going to win games. You miss things like that, you don’t win. Once you go 2-0 up, done, the game’s finished. We had so many chances for that to happen.”
PHOTOS: KYLE ANDREWS
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This is beginning to annoy everyone now, as Bowyer has been churning out the same excuses since we haven’t won, we were the better team but the forwards can’t score goals etc! Firstly, as per certain other games, we weren’t the better team, Birmingham had far more efforts on goal and Phillips actually saved us from losing the game, full stop no excuses! Bowyer has got to be taking some of the blame on some of the players he is playing and his subs. He keeps blaming Bonne for missing chances, he’s recently got two and is our current top scorer with 10, which isn’t bad for someone from non-league and he continues to run himself into the ground also coming back to help out the defence, but has no real other decent forward with him, to play off of!
Bower continues to play Hemed who ever since he joined the club has been absolutely useless, he hasn’t scored one goal and has never looked like scoring. He is slow, looses the ball easily and is never there to take a simple chance, yet he is a former premiership player who was brought in by Bowyer to score goals, but Bowyer has never once critisied him for not taking his chances, that’s because he is never in a position to get any! The only two that he had in all the games he has played, were when he had a clear shot on goal, but both were so poor they were like a back pass to the goalkeeper. Andrea Green, another waste of space, never takes a player on as he can’t get past them, can’t hold a ball up and doesn’t track back. Chucks, for all his strength, hasn’t had one real effort on goal himself and doesn’t look like scoring, plus soon gets tired and often doesn’t track back to help out. So why oh why won’t Bowyer play Davidson with Bonne????? Davidson did really well when he had to play upfront by himself due to injuries at the time, scored against WBA and was a real handful and did well in the other games he played. He is young full of energy and chases back and helps out the defence, surely its time to give him a chance, as Hemed, Green & Chucks just aren’t good enough!!!
Why does Bowyer continue to play Doherty as a wing back, he is the only player besides Sarr who can really cross a good ball and take on players, so why isn’t he played as a winger, which is his natural position, and play Sarr as the left back, who also has skill others lack and can also produce great crosses?
Free kicks in good areas in the oponents half, why oh why do we keep taking these quick short kicks, which nearly always don’t come off and end up going right back to Phillips, instead of putting the ball into the box, like every other team does to us? Is this another Bowyer tactic, the same as this sideways & backwards passing between Pearce & Lockyer, then to Phillips when one of them is caught out, which they still do when we are losing and the clock is running down, it drives everyone mad, even the commentators!
Subs brought on too defensive, trying to hold onto a one goal lead, didn’t work out again, as previously.
Plus don’t blame Bonne, he looks like the only forward who is capable of scoring, he actually doesn’t get hardly any chances compared to forwards in other teams, as decent crosses and balls in are few and far between as we don’t have any real quality attacking midfielders, apart from Morgan, who Bowyer seems to want him to concentrate more on defensive work!
So Mr Bowyer please be honest, we have been mostly very poor in these last four games no more excuses, the stats and table don’t lie, we just haven’t been good enough!